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Essay / Classic Management Function - 1461
"In common parlance, management refers to the people who manage in organizations and the activities they perform." (Fulop, Frith, Hayward 1992 p. 187) To be more precise, management is the process of organizing work activities with and through people to ensure that activities are carried out efficiently and effectively (Robbins, Bergman , Stagg, Coulter 2006, p. ). Through management, the goals of the organization or business must be achieved. Henri Fayol, one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management, proposed that there are five main functions for management, which are to plan, organize, command, coordinate and control. However, command and coordination functions have transformed into leadership functions (Crainer 2003). However, some influential management authors believe that classic management functions need to be updated. Williams (2005, p. 7) updated the functions of management and defined four functions: making things happen; meet the competition; organize people, projects and processes; and leader. To make things happen, it is essential to determine the goals, plan the means to achieve the goals, gather and manage the information needed to make superior decisions and also monitor performance to enable implementation corrective action if performance deteriorates. This function actually combined Fayol's idea of planning and control. The idea of determining things to accomplish and making plans to achieve the goals is similar to the planning function suggested by Fayol, which involves setting goals, establishing a strategy, and making plans to implement the strategy to achieve the objectives. Additionally, Williams discussed performance monitoring and corrective actions, which correspond to Fayol's classic management functions of monitoring. Controlling, according to Fayol, involves observing the performance of the organization and taking action if necessary to ensure that objectives are achieved. However, the action of gathering and managing the information necessary to make good decisions is not set out in traditional management functions. Based on the updated functions, the organization of people, projects and processes included consideration of people issues and work processes. At the same time, Fayol mentioned organizing, which is the management process of determining the best way to organize the organization's resources and activities. They actually have the same meaning when they both relate to the location of the organization's resources, namely employees as well as work processes or activities. The Learning Company, a company that develops and markets games and software, has been acquired by toy company Mattel. The company was in a loss three years after purchase because each department in the company works independently and does not share resources..